Redwood

March 06–6, 2017

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by Brittany K. Allen

Redwood' concerns an interracial couple (Meg, a middle school teacher, and Drew, a physicist) who are thrown into crisis when Meg's recently-retired Uncle Stevie makes a project of charting the family tree, via Ancestry.com. When Stevie discovers that his would-be nephew-in-law is heir apparent to the family that owned his (and subsequently, Meg's) relatives in an antebellum Kentucky, a time and space-bending dramedy of manners gone very far South ensues. Long-dead ancestors appear, to comment on their light-skinned progeny. A hip-hop dance class chorus guides the action. Meg speechifies on the nature of forgetting before the State Senate. The play is a splashy and strange beast which I hope will comment on the ways love can and cannot transcend social barriers and the oldest power structures in this country. 'Redwood' is also interested in the ways humans can and cannot forgive, champion or even fully understand those beloved who are fundamentally 'other.'